This invention relates generally to a compact vacuum conveyor apparatus for the pneumatic conveyance of loose bulk materials. The apparatus includes a transportable support cabinet which contains a bulk material separator having a delivery device, a vacuum pump aggregate connected to the separator, and the necessary appurtenances, a hollow tubular conveyor being connected to the separator and extending outwardly of the cabinet.
At large ports equipped for the trans-shipment of loose bulk materials, large stationary pneumatic conveyor systems are employed for unloading pulverulent and small-sized bulk materials. Each such system typically includes one or more pipe line conveyors connected to a powerful cyclone separator, the conveyors extending, for example, for hundreds of meters in length and being more than twenty meters in height. Such large vacuum conveyance installations, however, require considerable investment in capital and are quite costly to operate.
Mobile vacuum conveyance installations are also known in which the separator with the vacuum pump aggregate and the tubular conveyor as well as the necessary servicing equipment are disposed on a wheeled vehicle or on a vessel. The undercarriage (vessel or truck) for the mobile vacuum conveyance installation, however, involves additional expenditures which comparable with those of the installation itself and, since the size of the undercarriage must correspond to the size of the vacuum conveyance installation, mobile installations of this type are, for reasons of expenditure, in most instances, constructed for smaller outputs requiring shorter conveyance distances and lower heights.
In smaller ports, a large stationary installation for the pneumatic unloading of loose bulk materials is often out of the question. Replacing it by a plurality of mobile smaller vacuum conveyance installations is, however, often much too expensive because of the high capital cost and above all because of the maintenance involved. Thus, particularly in industrially less-developed countries, the advantages obtained with the pneumatic unloading of loose bulk materials, such as its great adaptability to the prevailing conditions of unloading, dustfree unloading, and the like, are unattainable.